Elgin Loft

Introduction

This project, located in downtown Toronto, is a unique combination of industrial, retail, and residential space.

The building, which house’s our client’s framing business, was purchased by our client and his father in 2004. The impressive 9,000 sq.ft. building is unique in its placement and layout: the building wraps around a corner of two main streets, encircling a bank that sits directly on the corner lot. Therefore, the unconventional L-shaped building has two street-facing facades, which makes it an ideal multi-use building. The family-owned framing shop, previously spread throughout the entire building, was consolidated into the north wing, and the building’s southeast wing was transformed into a spacious, three-storey home for the couple and their two children.

The largest challenge of this project was that its design needed to adhere to strict light-industrial use building regulations, which are much stricter than regulations for purely residential buildings. These regulations affect everything from the floor plan and window placements to the materials used in construction.

An exciting feature of this renovation is the partial third storey addition over the residential wing. Off this addition, large sliding doors reveal an impressive, 1,000 sq.ft. roof deck that sits on the roof of the framing shop.

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Design

The new design partitions the building’s L-shape into two main wings: The southeast residential wing, and the north industrial wing. This split preserves the framing shop’s existing gallery and storefront on the north face of the building, with the entrance to the residence off the other main street to the east.

The new residential area is located on three storeys, making up 3,000 sq.ft. of living space. The home’s main entrance is located on the lower level, adjacent to a built-in garage. The entrance foyer opens to a straight-run stair that heads up to the second level. A hallway that flanks the stair opens to a large family room/guest room, a full bathroom and a utility/storage room.

The contemporary stair, lined with a glass guard, brings you up to a spacious Great Room. Entering this space makes evident the family’s varied art collection: the spacious walls are a canvas for their extensive assortment of paintings, portraits, posters and mixed-media pieces.

The great room is the heart of the home, with a spacious kitchen, living and dining area. The kitchen features a large island unit, industrial chrome appliances, slate-grey cabinetry, and exposed timber structure. On one side of the kitchen, tucked in the western end of the main floor, is a bathroom, storage closet, and the kids’ bedroom painted in vibrant blues.

On the far side of the kitchen is the living and dining area. Huge windows let natural light pour in and provide views to the main street below. The window sills are deep enough to double as desk space and as home to multiple house plants.

Off the living area, another straight-run stair opens to the third floor family room, with high ceilings and a skylight over the stair. The family room features a large fireplace, plenty of seating and lots of play space for the two young boys. A large set of sliding doors opens to a 1,000 sq.ft. roof deck. The upper floor’s high ceilings and a skylight over the stair all bring light and serenity to the space.

The home’s large laundry room and master bathroom are found off of the hallway next to the stair. The bathroom’s most impressive feature is the spacious shower’s opalescent blue-green tiles that shimmer like mother-of-pearl in the light. The master bedroom, at the end of the hallway, has a private entrance to the bathroom and a large closet that spans an entire wall. Large east-facing windows overlook the street.

Construction

To add ceiling height to the lower level, the area behind the entrance stair was underpinned. The enclosed garage and the entryway did not need to be lowered, but the foundation walls and footings were thickened in order to reinforce the structure to allow for the added weight of the third floor addition. The addition was built with light-weight steel studs, as wooden studs or any other flammable material would not meet the building code for this project.

The existing roofing was a poly-vinyl, high performance PVC roof membrane, which our client had recently redone prior to the renovation. To minimize waste and preserve as much of the existing roof as possible, a section of the second floor’s roof membrane was transplanted and bonded onto the roof of the new addition.

On the first two floors, the pre-existing fire-resistant concrete block allowed us to use wooden studs set off the block by an inch without violating building code. Closed-cell foam insulation was then sprayed between the studs, acting as insulation, air barrier, and vapour barrier.

To adhere to building code, insulation on the third floor addition needed to be fire-proof. Therefore, Roxul Mineral batts were used for insulation, with a conventional poly sheet fastened inside the studs as vapour barrier. Because the third floor’s wall assembly acts as fireproofing, the roof was allowed to be insulated with closed-cell spray foam. The addition has an insulation value of R35, and the existing foundation comes in at R12. The finished roof has an insulation value of R32.

An in-floor heating system was installed between existing floor joists, an unconventional but effective way to heat a high performance home. The small heating load of this building means that the in-floor heating is all that’s required to stay comfortable. A combination boiler heats water for both domestic use and for the PEX piping that’s laid between the floor joists for the in-floor heating system.

For cooling, the house is equipped with a ductless Fujitsu air conditioner, with one head on each floor that sucks up hot air and replaces it with cool, conditioned air. Solares often ducts these “ductless mini splits”, to ensure consistent air conditioning throughout a house that has many different rooms. However, in this case, ducting the air conditioning system was not necessary, thanks to the home’s large open concept floor plan.

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